On April 25, 2005, the board of the East Porter County (Indiana) School Corporation voted 6-1 to adopt science textbooks recommended by a district committee. Several board members had previously raised questions about the proposed biology texts because they contained material about evolution, but not about creationism or other "alternative theories," and a decision on the textbooks was delayed to allow board members time to inspect the proposed texts.

Larry Caldwell, a parent in Roseville, California, has filed suit against Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, and the National Center for Science Education, Inc., alleging he was libeled by a recent article authored by Dr. Scott in California Wild magazine.

House Bill 220, introduced in the Texas House of Representatives on December 14, 2004, by Representative Charlie Howard (R-Sugar Land), would, if enacted, amend the state's education code to require that textbooks approved by the state be free from factual errors, "including errors of commission or omission related to viewpoint discrimination or special interest advocacy on major issues, as

The eminent paleontologist Norman D. Newell died on April 18, 2005, at the age of 96, in Leonia, New Jersey. Born in 1909 in Chicago, Newell received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Wisconsin until 1945, when he joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He also taught at Columbia University, where his students included Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould.